Phrases

bob and weave

This way, boxers could bob and weave out of the way of incoming punches.

As someone who stood on a curbside box in the innocent 1950s to witness my first Macy's parade, I have never completely lost that long-ago wonder at seeing giant cartoon figures bob and weave amid the skyscrapers.

bob for apples

There's bobbing for apples in the Great Hall and a game of Web of Fate taking place in the ballroom shortly.

If you're not bobbing for apples, you're hollowing out pumpkins; and if you're not putting daft expressions on gourds, you're splashing fake blood on your children and sending them out into the dead of night to beg for sweets.

Maybe we'll organize a Halloween party as well, complete with bobbing for apples.

Origin

Short words are often the hardest to pin down, and this is the case with bob, which has many uses. Some imply ‘short’; for example, the hairstyle, which became fashionable in the 1920s. Before that people had used bob for a horse's docked tail, a short bunch of hair or curls, and a short wig, and the bob in bobcat (late 19th century), bobsleigh (mid 19th century), and bobtail (mid 16th century) also means ‘short’.

Another set of uses involves a quick, short movement. People and things bob up and down, and boxers bob and weave. The British bob, ‘a shilling’, dating from the late 18th century, does not appear to be related to any of these, and its origin remains a mystery.

Bob's your uncle, used to draw attention to the ease with which something can be done, is from the pet form of the name Robert. The Robert in question may have been Lord Salisbury, who in 1887 gave the important post of Chief Secretary for Ireland to his nephew, Arthur Balfour, who was only 39 at the time. The problem with this suggestion is that the earliest recorded examples do not appear until the 1930s, around 50 years after the incident in question. However, we do know that the British bobby comes from Sir Robert Peel, British Home Secretary from 1828–30, who established the Metropolitan Police. The old-fashioned term peelers for policemen also comes from his name.

Origin

Short words are often the hardest to pin down, and this is the case with bob, which has many uses. Some imply ‘short’; for example, the hairstyle, which became fashionable in the 1920s. Before that people had used bob for a horse's docked tail, a short bunch of hair or curls, and a short wig, and the bob in bobcat (late 19th century), bobsleigh (mid 19th century), and bobtail (mid 16th century) also means ‘short’.

Another set of uses involves a quick, short movement. People and things bob up and down, and boxers bob and weave. The British bob, ‘a shilling’, dating from the late 18th century, does not appear to be related to any of these, and its origin remains a mystery.

Bob's your uncle, used to draw attention to the ease with which something can be done, is from the pet form of the name Robert. The Robert in question may have been Lord Salisbury, who in 1887 gave the important post of Chief Secretary for Ireland to his nephew, Arthur Balfour, who was only 39 at the time. The problem with this suggestion is that the earliest recorded examples do not appear until the 1930s, around 50 years after the incident in question. However, we do know that the British bobby comes from Sir Robert Peel, British Home Secretary from 1828–30, who established the Metropolitan Police. The old-fashioned term peelers for policemen also comes from his name.

Origin

Short words are often the hardest to pin down, and this is the case with bob, which has many uses. Some imply ‘short’; for example, the hairstyle, which became fashionable in the 1920s. Before that people had used bob for a horse's docked tail, a short bunch of hair or curls, and a short wig, and the bob in bobcat (late 19th century), bobsleigh (mid 19th century), and bobtail (mid 16th century) also means ‘short’.

Another set of uses involves a quick, short movement. People and things bob up and down, and boxers bob and weave. The British bob, ‘a shilling’, dating from the late 18th century, does not appear to be related to any of these, and its origin remains a mystery.

Bob's your uncle, used to draw attention to the ease with which something can be done, is from the pet form of the name Robert. The Robert in question may have been Lord Salisbury, who in 1887 gave the important post of Chief Secretary for Ireland to his nephew, Arthur Balfour, who was only 39 at the time. The problem with this suggestion is that the earliest recorded examples do not appear until the 1930s, around 50 years after the incident in question. However, we do know that the British bobby comes from Sir Robert Peel, British Home Secretary from 1828–30, who established the Metropolitan Police. The old-fashioned term peelers for policemen also comes from his name.

In this session we will be looking at the calling positions in Plain Bob Doubles and other doubles methods and we will deal with the fundamental effect of bobs on the coursing order which underpins the whole of what comes later.

Origin

Late 17th century: perhaps connected with bob1 in the sense 'sudden movement up and down'.

Short words are often the hardest to pin down, and this is the case with bob, which has many uses. Some imply ‘short’; for example, the hairstyle, which became fashionable in the 1920s. Before that people had used bob for a horse's docked tail, a short bunch of hair or curls, and a short wig, and the bob in bobcat (late 19th century), bobsleigh (mid 19th century), and bobtail (mid 16th century) also means ‘short’.

Another set of uses involves a quick, short movement. People and things bob up and down, and boxers bob and weave. The British bob, ‘a shilling’, dating from the late 18th century, does not appear to be related to any of these, and its origin remains a mystery.

Bob's your uncle, used to draw attention to the ease with which something can be done, is from the pet form of the name Robert. The Robert in question may have been Lord Salisbury, who in 1887 gave the important post of Chief Secretary for Ireland to his nephew, Arthur Balfour, who was only 39 at the time. The problem with this suggestion is that the earliest recorded examples do not appear until the 1930s, around 50 years after the incident in question. However, we do know that the British bobby comes from Sir Robert Peel, British Home Secretary from 1828–30, who established the Metropolitan Police. The old-fashioned term peelers for policemen also comes from his name.

noun

To build a block of flats, you simply slot the modules together in whatever arrangement you or your architect like, slap some cladding on the outside (red cedar, please, not concrete, this is the 21st century) - and Bob's your uncle.

You take any random word, preferably BAYBEE, chant it a few hundred times whilst repeatedly thumping any handy hard surface, record it with some techno tweaking, and Bob's your uncle.

It should not come as a surprise - after all, it's a simple case of keying in a few addresses, pressing the ‘forward’ button, and Bob's your uncle.